Musical lists

Musicals based on plays and operas

A good play makes a strong skeleton for a musical. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet became West Side Story and The Taming of the Shrew became Kiss Me, Kate, while George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion turned into My Fair Lady. Opera has been a source too: Rent reworks La boheme, Miss Saigon reworks Madama Butterfly, and Aida retells Verdi's tragedy.

Each show below links to a guide with the plot, songs, and characters. Use this page to trace a story from its original play or opera to the musical stage, or to find a show that pairs well with a text you are reading in class.

19 musicals on this list.

1940s

Oklahoma!1943 · Richard Rodgers · Golden AgeBased on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs.
Carousel1945 · Richard Rodgers · Golden AgeBased on Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom.
Kiss Me, Kate1948 · Cole Porter · Golden AgeBased on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

1950s

Peter Pan1954 · Charlap & Styne · Golden AgeBased on J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.
My Fair Lady1956 · Frederick Loewe · Golden AgeBased on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion.
West Side Story1957 · Leonard Bernstein · Golden AgeBased on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

1960s

Hello, Dolly!1964 · Jerry Herman · Golden AgeBased on Thornton Wilder's 1954 play The Matchmaker, his reworking of his 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers.
Cabaret1966 · John Kander · DramaBased on John Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera, which adapted Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin.
Mame1966 · Jerry Herman · Golden AgeBased on Patrick Dennis's 1955 novel Auntie Mame and the 1956 play adapted from it by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.

1970s

Chicago1975 · John Kander · ComedyBased on Maurine Dallas Watkins's 1926 play Chicago, inspired by real murder trials she covered as a reporter.
Sweeney Todd1979 · Stephen Sondheim · Sung-throughBased on Christopher Bond's 1970 play Sweeney Todd, itself drawn from the Victorian penny dreadful legend of the demon barber of Fleet Street.

1980s

Merrily We Roll Along1981 · Stephen Sondheim · DramaBased on George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 1934 play Merrily We Roll Along.

1990s

Miss Saigon1991 · Claude-Michel Schönberg · Sung-throughBased on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, moved to the Vietnam War.
Crazy for You1992 · George Gershwin · JukeboxBased on George and Ira Gershwin's 1930 musical Girl Crazy, reworked with an entirely new plot.
Rent1996 · Jonathan Larson · Rock/PopBased on Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera La bohème, moved to New York's East Village in the era of AIDS.

2000s

Aida2000 · Elton John · Rock/PopBased on Giuseppe Verdi's 1871 opera Aida, by way of soprano Leontyne Price's 1990 children's book retelling of it.
Spring Awakening2006 · Duncan Sheik · Rock/PopBased on Frank Wedekind's 1891 play Spring Awakening.

2020s

& Juliet2022 · Max Martin · JukeboxBased on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, reimagined with Juliet surviving the ending.
Kimberly Akimbo2022 · Jeanine Tesori · ComedyBased on David Lindsay-Abaire's 2001 play Kimberly Akimbo.